Erik Darling does not approve:
Like many other things we’ve discussed thus far, local variables are a convenience to you that have behavior many people are still shocked by.
You, my dear and constant reader, may not be shocked, but the nice people who pay me money to fix things seem quite astounded by what happens when you invoke local variables.
So I find myself in a difficult position: do I dredge up more red meat for the millions of die-hard SQL Server performance nuts who come here for the strange and outlandish, or produce evergreen content for people who pay my substantial bar tabs.
You have at least a 50% chance to guess what Erik does next.